#Hockey Arenas/Indoor Sports Complex

61 messages · Page 1 of 1 (latest)

upper vault
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After a spike in popularity in Ice Hockey among the young adults and children in Clearwater County, calls for a proper facility to be established within the county came after. Residents loved playing pickup hockey or "shinny" on Lake Superior and the ponds in Clearwater County but they felt it was time to establish a proper organization.

This was brought up to the city council of both Van Buren and Ashland, and the requests were met with positive support from many counsillors as they understood that given the region they were in, Hockey was very popular and the few residents that did play organized hockey had to travel out of the county just to play. They saw the opportunity and decided to established 2 multi-purpose facilities; one in Ashland, the other in Van Buren.

These projects were to be city funded, thus Ashland did get a multi purpose complex with one Ice Pad, a small Gym and a community center for residents to rent out meeting rooms, or just a place for family/community gatherings. The complex was named the "Clearwater Community Center" and was the home of the Clearwater County Eagles Minor Hockey Association for children and teenagers to play organized hockey.

The facility in Van Buren on the other hand also received support from the university as they saw an opportunity to attract more students with a University Hockey team. The complex was built and featured 2 Ice Pads (one with a level of seats for proper university games to be played), a large Gym, an indoor swimming pool and multiple indoor basketball/tennis courts. The facility was named the "Walter Jacobs Memorial Arena" after a previous Chancellor that ran the University in the 1970's and 80's that tried to establish a hockey team/arena then but ultimately failed.

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After continuing growth in hockey popularity within the county, and state given the new University Hockey Team, a wealthy business man by the name of Don Bolland who lived in Clearwater County saw an opportunity for a professional Hockey Team in the State of Superior with the upcoming 4 team NHL expansion draft. He proposed his idea to the city of Van Buren and he was granted permission to put his bid in for a team.

Mr. Bolland, who had connections to Hockey with his cousin being a member of the 1979-1983 New York Islanders dynasty team, and the City of Van Buren were granted an expansion team along with Houston, Quebec City, and Salt Lake City. After a public poll, it was elected that the team be named the "Van Buren Cougars" after the high Cougar population in the region. Shortly after talks of where this new 18500 seat multipurpose arena would be established...

crisp marsh
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WOAH

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VB not nearly big enough for s team

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the nhl team woth the smallest metro area around it is buffalo with 1.2 million

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van buren in not nearly big enough

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  • there are 3 nhl teams in the area blackhawks wild and red wings
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the market realistically itsnt big enough

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I could see them getting an AHL team

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Also in my experience with youth hockey for many years. Each town of around 10k+ has there own teams

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my town is the biggest hockey town in MA and for squirts i remember there being 5 teams of 18

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and pee wee was also 5

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I think realistically ashland has a rink van buren has a rink and the rural community's would have a shared hockey team between them

upper vault
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I'm canadian so it's a lot more for me, every small town even one's with sub 5k pop have an arena and team

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And generally speaking it'd be a statewide team like Minnesota wild, I just couldn't think of a name to go along with Superior that didn't sound discriminatory or smth

mellow hearth
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yes please

bitter rock
proper shadow
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I like the idea of a pro team in Superior but I agree with @crisp marsh that until the region/state grew significantly, a NHL team would be completely off the table. There’s a reason why they place them where they do….💰💰💰. There of course are limited exceptions in North American professional sports (Green Bay Packers for starters) but for the most part expansion nowadays is solely based on the market. So the idea is good, but it would definitely have to be a lower tier league. And even with a lower tier league, or even if let’s say the hockey team for the university were to move up a level or two, a new/larger arena venue could definitely still be on the table. I remember when Penn State men’s hockey moved up from like DIII to DI so they moved from like a 1000 seat ice rink (don’t quote me, I just remember it being small as a kid) to a brand new 6000-6500 seat arena. And funny enough speaking of Buffalo, the arena is named after the owners of the Sabres lol

crisp marsh
proper shadow
crisp marsh
proper shadow
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Sure but that’s more because it’s Arizona 😂 people don’t even know what hockey is. If they had better fans, they’d use Footprint

crisp marsh
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exactly

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they need to leave and go to a city that wants them

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wait they could move to cwc 🤷‍♂️

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makes more sense then staying in az with 5k arena

proper shadow
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Sure everyone knows that but let’s be realistic here…Superior State if you gave a rough population of all the real counties the “state” covers I bet isn’t even 1 mil pop

crisp marsh
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Yes lol

proper shadow
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Yeah the NHL would say no.

crisp marsh
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100000%

proper shadow
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I can think of 4 other metro areas that would have a better shot than Van Buren easy

crisp marsh
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apparently it would have only around 350k population but with cwc+nicolet 430k

crisp marsh
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houston

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atlanta

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san diego but idk bout them

proper shadow
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That’s my point. If they can’t put a team in Houston, Indy, Milwaukee, heck even another team in Ohio, move back to Atl (maybe), then nah

crisp marsh
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i agree it makes no sense

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but it would be cool

proper shadow
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Agreed lol

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He just needs to beef up CWC

crisp marsh
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im telling you that area buy the oil would be another great city could have a rival college there too

proper shadow
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He still needs to build out the future port side at some point, who knows. There’s a lot of space for sprawl/another suburb if that’s what Phil decides to do. Idk.

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I vote semi pro team and then if the area gets big enough then they move in a pro team lol

crisp marsh
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would make sense because cwc would be a fastest growing metro area considering vanburen was erected from nothing

proper shadow
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Right! Yeah I believe the largest city in that area was Duluth? So you definitely right on that one lol

crystal gull
# crisp marsh houston

I love San Diego, but it’s nowhere near being able to support an NHL team. They do a damn fine job with their AHL team though. They’re building a new arena, too.

crisp marsh
bitter rock
proper shadow
bitter rock
proper shadow
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Penn St named the hockey arena y he Pegulas funded after them

upper vault
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I still think a Uni hockey team would be dope, then an NHL team as the region grows further down the road

bitter rock
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I am aware people in this server are generally Packers fans including Phil but what if the city of Green Bay sold the team to an owner from Clearwater who moved the team east

crisp marsh
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in what world

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would that ever happen